Adjustable waistbands



E. P. NACCASH ADJUSTABLE WAISTBANDS Oct. 7, 1958 2,854,670

Filed Jan. 27, 1956 2 She e ts-Sheet 1 ATTORNEY 7; 1958 E. P. NA'CCASH2,854,670 ADJUSTABLE: WAISTBANDS Filed Jan. 27. 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 .QINVENTOR 7 7 W wfi am ATTORNEY United States Patent M ADJUSTABLEWAISTBANDS Edmund P. Naccash, Falls Church, Va.

Application January 27, 1956, Serial No. 561,904

1 Claim. (Cl. 2-237) This invention relates to clothing and moreparticularly to adjustable waistbands for trousers.

Adjustable waistbands, to properly size a pair of trousers to thewearer, have been known in the art of trousers for a long time, as forexample; the use of free end draw type cords in the waistbands ofpajamas, or the elastic type waistbands most commonly used in such itemsas; slacks, Bermuda shorts, pajamas, and the like.

In most applications of the adjustable waistband, the normal free enddraw cord or the elastic type waistband are completely acceptable, sincein most instances the trousers are purchased to fit a particular sizeperson and the amount of adjustment required is virtually negligible.Further, where a free end draw cord is used as an adjusting means fortrousers, such items of clothing are usually laundered at home or by aprivate cleaning institution, where reasonable care is taken, so thatthere is very little danger of the cord either getting lodged within thehem of the trouser and becoming useless, or becoming totally disengagedfrom the hem of the garment.

However, there is one form of garment wherein it is ab solutelynecessary to have an adjustable waistband, and these particular garmentsare subjected to mass institutional laundering, where little care istaken, thus these garments are particularly susceptible to theaforementioned loss or rendering useless of the draw cord. Such garmentsare known as medical or doctors scrub suits or trousers, and must becompletely adjustable to fit a number of different physical sizes, sinceit is common practice to purchase such garments in but three sizes,namely; small, medium, and large. The scrub suit is usually made ofordinary heavy-duty white cotton having uncufied trouser legs and theconventional free end type of draw cord about the waist.

In many instances a doctor, preparatory to entering the operating room,will select a scrub suit from the clean linen supply only to find thatin the course of sometimes its very first laundering that the adjustablecord has either gotten lodged within the hem of the waistband and isunretrievable, or else the cord has become completely disengaged fromthe hem of the trouser. In either case the trouser is virtually uselessfor the immediate needs of the doctor. It has been a common occurrencewhen the aforedescribed happens that the doctor will take the uselessscrub suit and throw it into the dirty laundry bin. As a result theuseless garment will proceed to thelaundry and will eventually reappearin the clean linen supply where it will ultimately be selected again,and again found to beuseless. Many times such a useless garment willcontinue in the vicious circle of being discarded without use,relaundered, and will reappear in the clean linen supply, and as aresult the garment will be worn out merely by laundering and withoutuse.

It is obvious that as a result of the foregoing that the hospitals gothrough needless expense of maintaining large inventories of scrubsuits, laundering garments con- 2,854,670 iatented Oct. 7, 1958 tinuallythat are never worn, and suffering the expense of having perfectly goodgarments ruined without proper use.

United States Letters Patent issued to G. R. Eager, No. 181,155, onAugust 15 1876, is representative of an advance in the art of adjustablewaistbands for trousers. In the form of the invention disclosed by theEager patent one end of the draw cord is securely fastened to the innerside of the waistband while the other end of the cord is alternatelythreaded in and out of a plurality of waistband loops. The cord is thenpulled by the free end to tighten the waistband about the waist of thewearer and then suitably secured to the trouser. In this manner the drawcord of the Eager invention can never become dislodged or lost. Afurther form of the invention discloses a pair of cords each having anend fixedly secured to the inner side of the waistband while the otherends of the cords are threaded from opposite directions throughwaistband loops about the waist of the trouser until the free ends ofthe cords meet at the front of the trouser. The wearer can draw on thefree ends of the cords tightening the waistband, and then knot the freeends of the cords together. In this later described form of the Eagerinvention the cord is impossible of loss or being rendered useless.

The present invention is directed to new and novel improvements in theconstruction and function of adjustable waistbands for trousers, andfinds particular applicability to the adjustable waistbands o-f doctorsscrub suits to effectively prevent the difficulties, heretoforedescribed, experienced with such scrub suits, thereby materiallylowering the cost to the hospitals, and also providing the maximumuseful life from such scrub suits.

The novel adjustable waistband of the present invention comprises anovel hemming of the upper end or waistband of the trouser or scrub suitover a unique endless waistband draw cord, so that when the cord isassembled into the scrub suit it is absolutely impossible for the cordto ever become lodged within or totally removed from the waistband ofthe scrub suit. Also the aforedescribed scrub suits are reversible, thatis they are capable of being worn with either side out, and the noveladjustable waistband cord of the present invention novelly provides foradjustment regardless of which side is turned out.

Therefore, it is a primary object of the present novel invention toprovide improvements in clothing.

Another object of the present novel invention is to provide improvementsin trousers.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide trouserswith novel improved adjustable waistbands.

An additional object of the present invention is to provide a doctorsscrub suit trouser with a novel cord type adjustable Waistband whereinthe cord can never become dislodged from the trouser, or in any wayrendered useless.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a noveladjustable waistband for doctors scrub suit trousers wherein the waistcan be adjusted or sized re-' gardless which side of the trousers isworn next to the hem mounting a unique endless type adjusting cordforadjusting the waist of the trousers to various sizes.

These and other objects will readily appear and become .more apparentfrom a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction withthe attached drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a pair of trousers provided withthe novel waistband and endless draw. cord of the present invention;Figure 2 IS a side elevational view of the trousers Figure 4 is ahorizontal sectional view through the novel waistband of the trousersshowing the mounting of the endless cord therein, and the manner inwhich the cord can be adjusted at a plurality of locations about theperiphery of the waistband;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary front elevational view of a further embodimentof the present invention showing a variation in the disposition of thewaistband openings;

Figure 6 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the trousers shown inFigure 5;

Figure 7 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of the waistband ofFigure 5;

Figure 8 is a fragmentary front elevational view of still a furtherembodiment of the present novel invention showing a plurality ofwaistband openings on both sides of the waistband hem;

Figure 9 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the trousers shown inFigure 8; and

Figure 10 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of the waistband ofthe trousers shown in Figure 8.

The present novel invention is primarily concerned with what are knownas doctors scrub suits, however, it will be readily appreciated from thefollowing detailed description that the present novel invention isequally applicable to any type of trouser requiring an adjustablewaistband.

It is the purpose of the present novel invention to obviate all thedifiiculties heretofore encountered with the free end type of drawstring or cord, as heretofore described in detail.

These difficulties are obviated by mounting within a novel hem of thetrouser a unique draw cord of endless construction, so that once the hemis securely stitched the draw cord is incapable of removal therefrom. Asa result of this unique construction, the details of which will'be morefully described hereinafter, the draw cord of the present invention cannever be withdrawn from the waistband hem, nor can it ever become lodgedWithin the hem and irretrievable.

Turning now to the drawings, and particularly to Figures 1 through 4,there will now be described a preferred embodiment of the present novelinvention, wherein the numeral generally designates a pair of white,washable, cotton type pants, commonly known as a doctors scrub suit. Asclearly seen in Figures 1 and 2 the lower edges of the pants 20 areformed without cuffs as indicated by the numeral 21, while upper end ofpants 20 is formed with a hem generally designated 22. In the presentnovel invention the hem 22 is relatively wide and is formed by foldingthe upper end of the trouser 29 over on itself, as indicated at 24, andthen stitching the two layers of materialtogetherasby stitching 26. Inthis manner there is formed between layers 28 and 30 of hem 22 acontinuous open area or channel 32 about or encircling waistband of thetrousers 29. Prior to the stitching of layers 23 and 3% an endless cord34 is mounted between these layers to encircle the waistband of thetrousers in channel 32. Once cord 34 is mounted within channel 32 andthe layers 23 and 30 have been stitched together it is obvious that thecord 34, by virtue of its endless construction, will be incapable ofbeing removed from the waistband of the trousers and of course alsoincapable of being lost. As clearly seen in Figures 1 and, 4, the hem 22of pants 20 is formed with four equally spaced openings at the uppermostend of the hem 22, as designated by the numeral 36, thereby exposingportions of endless cord 34 about the periphery of hem 22 for a purposewhich will hereinafter appear. Openings 36 are of sufficient width topermit a pair of fingers of the doctor to be inserted therein to graspthe cord 34 and pull it therefrom as indicated by the extended loopgenerally designated by the numeral 38 in Figure 1. Once the doctor hasdonned the pants 20 he places his fingers into one of the openings 36and withdraws the loop 38 therefrom. The choice of which opening 36 todraw the loop 38 from is one of strictly a personal preference. Thewithdrawn loop is then pulled to draw the cord 34 snugly about the bodyof the wearer and is then knotted with an ordinary overhand knot asgenerally designated by the numeral 40 in Figure 2, or other suitableknot.

The provisions of the four openings 36 is to permit the drawal of loop38 from any one of them and to allow knotting of the cord 34 at any oneof four locations; namely, either side, front, or back. This has beenprovided for since it is known that the preference of the doctor as" tothe location of the knotted cord varies considerably.

As clearly seen in Figure 4, the novel endless draw string or cord 34completely encircles the waist of the pants 20 within the channel 32,and by virtue of stitching 26 can never be withdrawn therefrom. Also byvirtue of relatively wide openings 36 the cord 34 is always accessible,and can never become irretrievably lodged within the hem 22 of trousers20. As a result of the novel mounting of theunique endless draw cord 34,the heretofore described difricultiesencountered with the use of freeend draw cords is completely, novelly, and inexpensively obviated, andthe subject scrub suit of the present novel invention can be subjectedto any type of institutional mass laundering or maltreatment without anyfear of losing such draw strings. Consequently with the use of the novelscrubsuit of the present invention the expense to the hospitals inreplacing unusable scrub suits is materially lowered.

Turning now to Figures 5, 6, and 7 there is shown a further embodimentof the present novel invention. In this form of the invention theopenings 36 are formed in the hem 22, midway in the width thereof orbetween the marginal edges of hem 22, as clearly seen in Figure 5. Thepurpose of this form of the invention being to provide a backing for thecord 34, when it is drawn tightly about the Waist of the wearer; namely,the panel or portion 30, to prevent chafing of the wearers body. In allrespectsthe function of the form of the invention shown in Figures 5through 7 is exactly similar to that shown in Figures 1 through 4, andheretofore described.

Turning now to Figures 8 through 10 there is shown still a furtherembodiment of the present novel invention. This embodiment of thepresent invention takes into account that the doctors scrub suits areordinarily reversible; that is, the scrub suit pants can be worn witheither side out. Therefore, the draw string or cord should, necessarily,be easily accessible regardless of which side of the trousers are wornoutwardly. And, this fact is uniquely taken care of by the form ofFigures 8 through 10. As clearly seen in Figures 8 through 10 the outerpanel or layer 28 of hem 22 is formed with four equally spaced openings36 intermediate the sides or marginal edges of the hem. The inner panel30 is also formed with four equally spaced openings locatedintermediate-the marginal edges of hem 22, and designated 36'. Asclearly seen in-Figure 8, the openings 36 and 36'-are offset one abovethe other for a purpose which will hereinafter appear.

draw string or cord 34 can be. withdrawn through open- I Turning now toFigure 10, it will be seen by phantom lines 44 and 46 that the- 3 body,thereby facilitating the putting on and adjusting the garment in eitherof its reversible positions. The purpose of offsetting the draw stringopenings 36 and 36' can be best explained with reference to Figure 10.Assuming the cord 34 is withdrawn through openings 36, it will be seenthat as the cord 34 is tightened about the wearers waist that the cordwill bear against that portion of inner panel or layer 30 generallydesignated by the numeral 48. Should the trousers be reversed and thecord 34 withdrawn from the openings 36, the cord would then bear againstthat portion of panel or layer 28 generally designated 50. In thismanner, that is by offsetting openings 36 and 36', the cord 34 willnever bear directly against the skin of the wearer to cause anuncomfortable chafing condition.

It will be readily appreciated from the foregoing description that thereis herein provided a novel adjustable waistband particularly adaptableto doctors scrub suits, as well as other forms of adjustable waistbandtrousers, wherein the draw string or cord can never become lodged withinthe waistband and irretrievable, or totally withdrawn from saidwaistband, either event which if it occurred would render the trousersvirtually useless as heretofore particularly described. The presentnovel invention is easily and simply manufactured without any majorvariations in present manufacturing techniques, and obviates allheretofore experienced difiiculties connected with free end cord drawstrings. In addition, by virtue of the fact that this draw string hereindisclosed and described can never become dislodged from the trousers thecost of replacing such trousers in the hospital inventories will bematerially lessened, since such replacement will occur much moreinfrequently.

The invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from thespirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiments aretherefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and notrestrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appendedclaim rather than by the foregoing description,

and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalencyof the claim are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by United States LettersPatent is:

A unitary trouser garment comprising: a unitary circular body portionhaving integral downwardly extending divided leg portions; the upperedge of said body portion being substantially folded upon itself forminga substantially wide double layer of material encircling the waistlineof said garment; a single row of stitching substantially spaced from theupper edge of said body portion and adjacent the free end of said foldedportion completely encircling said garment and fixedly securing saidfolded portion to the adjacent body portion to define a singlesubstantially wide unobstructed permanent waistline encircling hem; anintegral one-piece inseparable endless cord irremovably mounted whollywithin said hem, and freely adjustably slidably movable therein; aplurality of access openings spaced along said hem exposing at least aportion of said cord to permit a loop portion of said cord to beselectively withdrawn therethrough and knotted on itself externally ofsaid hem to effect tightening adjustment of the waistline of saidgarment; and said openings are spacedly disposed at the uppermost edgeof said waistline encircling hem; said access openings being defined bysubstantially vertically spaced sides, in both layers extendingdownwardly from the upper edge of said body portion; and said sidesbeing connected by lower horizontal edges in respective layers.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,349,019 Terrell May 16, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS 126,142 Germany Dec. 6,1901

